(Reuters) – Civil unrest over fatal police shootings of two Hispanic men has divided the normally placid city best known as the home of Disneyland and renewed calls by Anaheim’s growing Latino community for a greater say in local government.
The City Council this week voted 3-2 to reject a proposed ballot measure to end Anaheim’s at-large voting system and have council members elected from specific districts, a change that supporters say would have given Hispanics more of a voice in the city of more than 335,000.
The three council members who opposed putting the proposal on the November ballot said they wanted more time to study alternatives to the at-large system.
Latinos make up nearly 53 percent of Anaheim’s population, up from less than 47 percent in 2000, U.S. census figures showed. But only three Latinos have ever been elected to the City Council, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
The five-person City Council in Anaheim, the largest California city still electing its leaders on an at-large basis, is mostly made up of whites, but one member of the panel is originally from India and another claims Hispanic heritage as the daughter of a man from Spain.
The Orange County tourism hub made headlines last month when violent protests erupted following two fatal weekend police shootings of Hispanic men, one of whom was unarmed, leading to dozens of arrests and smashed storefront windows.
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